Crescendo
by cherryflowerblossoms
Summary: This is a three-shot. Before the battle at Sozin's Comet, the group as split up. Zuko & Katara camp out and let out some steam. Zutara. Limey Lemons & rated M!
1. Cooling Off

**I own nothing... except my plushie Zuko. I do own him. XD SO CUTE!**

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><p><strong>~Cooling Off~<strong>

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><p>Night had fallen and Zuko was bringing Appa down in the Northern region of the Earth kingdom. Zuko picked this area because it was heavily forested and along the coast and beside a fresh water river system. They were surrounded on two sides by water and had a thick forest that no one traveled through on the other.<p>

Zuko glanced over his shoulder to Katara. She was curled up with her bedroll as a pillow, his bedroll had her leg draped across it and his cloak was serving as her blanket. Zuko smiles as he moves over to her.

"Katara," he speaks softly.

Not even a twitch.

He brushes a strand of hair behind her ear, "Tara, we've stopped for the rest of the day. It will be night in a few hours."

He groans as she fails to show any signs of waking. With a sigh, he gives her shoulders a gentle shaking.

"What? Huh? Who's there?" Katara shouts as she springs up, successfully knocking foreheads with Zuko, who is now laying flat on his back. Katara blinks and looks around before spotting the dazed and shocked firebender, "Oh! Zuko! I'm sorry!" She scrambles over to his side, "Are you ok?"

Zuko blinks… "bahahaha!" He clutches at his stomach as his musical laugh fills the air.

Katara blinks before snapping her jaw closed and pouting slightly, "You should know better than to shake me awake," she gathers her things and some of Zuko's grumbling all the while.

Zuko regains his control as he sits up, "*chuckle* you are so cute when you're angry," he watches her grumbling with a goofy smile. His Uncle's words run through his head, 'You should talk with Katara and tells her your concerns. Only in an open and honest environment can the bloom that is love blossom.' Sokka's words follow, 'you need to talk to Katara about this… and that guilt you two have been lugging around.' Zuko sighs. He stands and moves over to Katara and begins helping her to unload things (and even taking some of her load).

They hop down off of Appa, who promptly plops down and yawns.

Katara pats his leg, "I know it, boy. You've been flying us around everywhere haven't you."

Zuko can't help but smile as he watches her lovingly petting Appa, the big furry bison's tongue flopping out almost like a puppy.

Drawing himself from his revere, he sets his load down and approaches the adorable scene before him. "Here, Tara," he holds his arms out, "let take that from you," he gestures to the random things in her arms.

Katara stops scratching Appa shoulder and shoots Zuko a steely glare, "I'm fully capable of handling it myself," she turns her nose up and marches around him. She sets down her load angrily and then goes about stomping as she pretends to be doing things that were important.

Startled and caught off guard, Zuko stands watching, staring dumbly with his eyes wide and his mouth agape.

After a minute or two of angry stomp and needless "setting up", Katara pauses and places her hands on her hips as she steadies her breathing. She glances over her shoulder with a huff and a glare. She freezes, the anger melting away.

What was she doing? She was lashing out at Zuko when he was only trying to be nice. Why was it so hard for her to stop turning to anger around him when she was hurting or stressed. Her shoulders slump as his heart breaking expression stings her to the core.

Zuko pulls his eyes away from her hypnotic gaze and her full lips. 'Maybe she is realizing that she made a mistake with me. Maybe she finally decided that she could never be with the enemy… I don't blame her if she did,' he ponders to himself as he stares at the ground. Why else would she treat him so unnecessarily rudely?

Zuko winces slightly at the thought, "I, uh…" he clears his throat, "I'm just gonna go get some wood for the, uh, fire…" He looks back up for a second before forcing a smile that ended up looking ridiculous; then turning around and heading off into the forest.

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><p>Katara stands frozen in place long after he has gone, staring after where he disappeared into the trees. She groans and rubs her hands over her face, "What is wrong with me? I am ruining my relationship over stupid, unfounded feelings of guilt!"<p>

She looks around camp trying to find something to do to take her mind off of her own stupidity. "Ugh! That's it," she grabs her bag off 'essentials'… which reminded her to thank Pakku. It was his refusal to "allow" a young girl traveling with men to do so without a female "essentials" bag. She had been annoyed, but Spirits has the thing came in handy. It was nice to be able to have some feminine luxuries while traveling and camping in the outdoors all the time.

"Time for some much needed girl relaxation time," she sighs contentedly as she heads of to follow up the river to the left of camp.

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><p>Elsewhere, around in the forest somewhere…<p>

"Ugh!" Zuko yells as he kicks another log simultaneously smashing it to pieces and charring it. He had been destroying more potential firewood than he had gathered.

"I just don't understand women," he grumbles as he heads off towards one of the rivers around camp. A nice dip in the river might help him to control his growing frustrations… of different types.

He and Katara were still very early in their relationship and they hadn't gotten intimate. However, Katara's very being calls to his in way that should probably be illegal. He groans slightly as he pictures her waterbending. Her body moving in a sensual dance as she twist and twirls the water.

…Yep, a splash of cold water is exactly what he needed right now.

He steps out of the trees and up to the bank as he eyes the "river". "Pft, more like a deep stream with a river rock bottom," he mutters as he eyes the narrow, clear, deep waterway.

He sets down his firewood by a tree trunk and unties his sash, slipping off his shirt and laying atop the wood pile. He yanks of his boots and stares longingly at the cool waters. This was going to be nice.

With a cautious glance along the tree lines on both shores, he unties the strings holding up his silk pants and lets them fall as he steps out of them and walks to the edge of the stream where a kind of pool had formed.

Zuko takes a deep breath and dives into the waters.

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><p>'What the Spirits was that?' Katara thinks to herself from under the surface of the water. She had been sitting on her perch at the bottom of the river for quite a while after she had bathed with her scented oils. Being a waterbender most definitely had its "up-sides". She could form an air pocket around her nose and stay under water as long as her air lasted her.<p>

Katara's ears perked again as odd muffled sounds carried through the water. She focuses in attempt to figure out the noise.

Finally, her patience just couldn't take it anymore, and with the thing not leaving or discovering her things on the shore, she decides to investigate.

She swims to the waist deep waters before emerging and gathering up a water whip, just in case.

…

…

…

…

…

"Huh…" she blinks, "that's odd," she quirks a brow as she scans around and sees… nothing. She lowers her whip. "The moon must be close to full," she thinks aloud, "I'm too tightly wound up."

She turns around to head to a small pool she had spotted before just a few feet up stream. "Oh… my… spirits," Katara's mouth slacks. In front of her stands Zuko… in barely waist deep water… with water droplet rolling down his exposed skin… with the stream steaming around his pale, chiseled form…. Her eyes drag over his form. Had Zuko always looked this good under his clothing?

Her eyes focus on a droplet as it appears out of his hairline, trailed down his unmarred cheek, down his neck, over his muscled chest, around his navel, down his dark and curly trail of air that headed down, only to witness it disappear in another hair line that was just visible. She only barely recognizes that her breathing is slightly quicker.

"Katara?" her eyes flick to his startled face.

Her eyes, however, stray back down his body and back to his parted lips. Her tongue darts out to dampen her own. Oh yeah, the moon is most definitely close to being full.

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><p><strong>Reviews are tasty treats.<strong>

If you like this, check out where it came from: Keep Your Friends Close & Your Enemies Closer

:P


	2. Bad Moon Rising

**::DISCLAIMER:: I own nothing! I merely play with the characters like dolls... actually no. Have you _seen_ Ken dolls? Poor things...  
><strong>

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><p>WARNING! This one gets a bit hot and heavy! LEMONY-LIME goodness! Smut!<p>

Whatever you call it. It's in this chapter!

If you don't like that sort of thing then don't read "M" rated things.

It's. Honestly. That. Simple.

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><p><em><strong>~Bad Moon Rising~<strong>_

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><p>Zuko's POV<p>

"Oh…my….spirits," says a voice not far from Zuko. His ears perk and his eyes whip up to the frozen form of Katara in front of him. He freezes on the spot not sure of what to do. He is in nothing but what he was born in… and Katara was- Zuko's breath hitches.

"Agni," he whispers as his eyes are glued to Katara's unbound chest. He watches as a water droplet trails down her neck, along her collarbone and then between her round breast. Zuko swallows a groan, 'Agni. How in the gods' names has she been hiding those under her bindings?'

His eyes trail back up to her bright blue orbs. He doesn't even notice that his breathing was quickening as he watched her pink tongue swipe across her plump lips. He did notice –however- that a certain part of him had most definitely taken note of her surprisingly womanly figure. Zuko's face heats up as he realizes that that visible sign is exactly where her gaze is now glued.

He moves his hands to attempt to cover himself, "Uh, Katara?"

Her eyes blaze as she rakes over his form and he can't help but groan, "Tara," he breathes her name as though it were a prayer.

Suddenly, Katara is in front of him and Zuko feels that any thoughts of logic and reason are long gone as she lifts her burning gaze into his eyes.

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><p>Katara's POV<p>

Katara stood there eying the Fire Prince's lean and muscled form as she had an inner battle with herself. Was her urge to run her hands brazenly over this abs because of the moon or because she honestly wanted to?

She played through all of her memories of Zuko:

The bad, when he was hunting them down;

The good, like when he held her close as she cried on the way back from tracking down her mother's killer;

And the ugly, like how they still fought like a whip-lash of hot and cold.

She knew that they'd go back and forth between getting along and fighting with each other. Yet, she also knew that she felt drawn to him. …No matter how much she wanted to hit him over his stubborn Firebender head sometimes. She knew that she want this… this, whatever they had.

She wanted him.

…and by the looks of it, her eyes glue to his apparent arousal for her, he wanted it to.

"Tara," he whispers huskily as he attempts to cover his …his gracious plenty.

Oh no. She would be having none of that. Katara can't even bring herself to blush; she was too far gone for modesty. Bad moon rising and logic be damned. Katara was going to finally show him just how badly she wanted his stubborn, sexy Firenation ass. …And what a nice ass it was.

Using a push from the water, she moves, rather quickly, to stand before him. She lifts her eyes to look into his liquid honey orbs. She was searching for something. Something that would show her that this was right. That he wanted her has much as she wanted him. But she was also searching for something that she couldn't put a label to…

And then, she finds it.

With a soft smile, she lifts her hand and places it on his scarred cheek. He sighs out his nickname for her and nuzzles into her hand. Cautiously, she lifts her other hand and trails her finger tips from the back of his hands (which were still covering his gracious plenty) up over his wrists and his arms. As she brushes across his shoulders and collarbones, his muscles shudder under her touch.

She pauses and glances to his face cautiously. His eyes are shut and his lips are parted, and so, she moves on with her curious exploration. She spreads her finger tips out on his chest and timidly brushes over his nipple earning a light hiss to break loose from his lips. She looks to his face to find him watching her intently with his molten eyes. Her other hand runs down his chest to join the journey and, together, she moves them downward in a ghosting trail across his abs. She grabs each of his wrists and moves them away after a slight bit of resistance.

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><p>Zuko's POV<p>

Zuko pauses for a moment before allowing her to move his hands. He moves them to his side before freezing again, not wanting to scare her away.

Her nails lightly graze his hip bone causing them to jerk forward slightly. A groan escapes his lips, "Tara…" his voice trails off.

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><p>Katara's POV<p>

She eyes his clenching and unclenching fists and she smiles softly at him as she realizes just how hard he is trying to hold still for her curious exploring. "Zuko," she whispers as she places a hand on his cheek, "kiss me."

(**A/N:** POV gets jumbled here. It's on purpose. Just read it and feel the emotions of the moment. …oh and Lemon-Lime WARNING!)

As soon as the words pass her lips, he pulls her the last few inches to him and crushes her body to his in a searing, toe-curling kiss.

His hot tongue presses lightly across her bottom lip begging entrance which she readily accepts. He coxes her tongue into a kind of battle, fire against ice, his heat against her cool. The result was the same as the weather's would be - a raging storm of passion.

Katara has never been kissed this way; even the few times that Zuko had kissed her, it never felt like this. Her insides were heated and it felt as though a coil deep within her was starting to tighten.

One of Zuko's hands fist into her hair as the other ghosts down her spine causing her to shudder against him in the most delicious way, pulling a rumbling moan from his chest.

Katara's hands are just a busy; one is wrapped around his neck, her fingers tangled into his locks, keeping him from pulling away; the other hand trails back down his abs. She trails her nails across a hip bone and moans his name as his hips grind into hers. She slips her hand between them and wraps her hand around his very gracious plenty.

A hiss and a groan escapes from Zuko as she moves her hand up and down his shaft, slowly. He drags his tongue across her bottom lip before sucking it into his mouth and nibbling it softly. He moves a hand to her breast avoiding her tender buds causing her to whimper into his mouth. He smirks softly before brushing his thumb across her hardened bud in reward.

"Zuko," Katara breathes out as an electric shock moves from her nipple to between her legs. She rubs her thighs together in an attempt to relieve some of her building pressure.

She runs her own thumb across the tip of Zuko's swollen head causing him to thrust into her hand. Feeling empowered by this discovery, she pumps her hand from the base to the head brushing her thumb around the tip with each pass.

Moving his hips to match her hand, Zuko tears his lips from her and places searing kisses down her neck and chest.

"Zuko," she moans as his hot mouth wraps around the bud of one of her breast. She pumps him slightly faster as his mouth laps, nips and sucks her into a frenzy.

Zuko moves the hand not supporting her back from her waist around into the curly down between her legs. He moves his finger between her lower lips and brushes over her pearl of nerves.

Katara moans his name loudly over and over like a prayer as her head lulls to the side. He has decided that his name coming her lips is a sound he wants to hear more of. He slips a finger into her slick opening as his thumb rubs circles around her bundle of nerves. He groans as her walls begin to clench around his finger, "Ungh, so tight," he groans through clenched teeth.

Katara tosses her head side to side and clenches her eyes closed as the coil inside tightens to the point where she thinks it will either burst or she'll die of this feverish, trembling mess she's become. She pumps Zuko faster, using the little beads of moister at his tip to make her movement easier.

"Tara, Tara, Tara," he chants with each swipe of her hand. His abdomen begins to tighten and he knows he is not far off from his release. With a circle of his thumb around her pearl between her legs, he adds a second finger. Now she chants his name. The his name being cried from her plump lips brings him even closer.

"Tara," he says huskily as his lips brush her ear, "let go." With that he curls his fingers, hitting just the right spot inside, as he presses his thumb to her bundle. Her walls flutter around his fingers, and with one last swirl of his thumb, they clamp down just as he reaches his own release.

"Zuko!"

"Tara!"

He continues to slowly move his fingers within her as she rides out her orgasm. As she falls limp in his arms, only keeping one hand upon his neck playing with his hair, he tenderly washes off her inner thighs as well as himself before lifting her out of the water and carrying her to the banks.

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><p><strong>Reviews are better than this past Sundays latest episode of True Blood... <strong>

**yeah, no, not even close. **

**FINALLY Alan Bell did something right! **

**I flippin' love Eric Northman and adore Alexander Skarsgard. He, Alan Hyde and all the cast have done well. **

**Alan Bell, however, needs to cut out his Compton-Love-fest! Ugg! I actually kinda want to bonk him over the head... hard.  
><strong>


	3. Crescendo

**~Crescendo~**

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><p><strong>Lemons, Limes and everything yummy! ^_-<strong>

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><p><strong>Disclaimer: *sigh* really likes to rub it in our faces that we own nothing, don't they… *glares* Ug, FINE! I do not own The Last Airbender, nor do I own Avatar, the characters within, nor any plot points there in. Blah, blah, blah. *pouts* I hope you're happy. I'm sufficiently depressed now.<strong>

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><p>Katara's POV<p>

I awoke surrounded by a comfortable heat, laying upon cozy softness and warm fingers tips grazing down my face and neck. I sigh contentedly as they leave butterfly touches across my collarbones and shoulders. If this was what I would be dreaming about because of the moons crazy pull, then I would be a OK with that.

Fingers come back to brush my lips and I open my mouth to catch one with my tongue, swirling it around the tip.

"Ungh, Tara," is the husky reply I receive. MMM, a Zuko dream. I also loved those. I suck on the digit until it is pulled away quickly and replaced by lips smashing against my own.

MMM, Zuko always tasted so yummy in my dreams… It was about then when I pulled myself from the remaining fog of sleep and snapped my eyes open. Not a dream…?

I pull back slightly from his delicious attack earning a sexy pout from his plump bottom lip. This had best not be a dream or I'm gonna be pissed as fuck… and frustrated to boot.

He places a tender kiss to my forehead, then my nose, then one eye lid, followed by the other. I sigh from his onslaught and voice my threat, "if this is another dream because of the moon's pull, I'm gonna be one unhappy lady when I wake up. Poor Zuko is gonna think I hate him tomorrow," I giggle at my own joke. Truth be known, majority of the time when I was short to anger with him, it was merely cause I wanted to jump his sexy firebending ass. I reach to squeeze his butt and moaning as he grinds his arousal into the side of my leg, "and what a sexy ass it is."

Zuko pulls back from kissing me and chuckles, "you are adorable when you just wake up," he smirks and nips at my bottom lip, "this is no dream. Although your little surprise at the river was quite dream like," he states wriggling his eyebrows.

I blink, "I'm awake?"

He reaches and teasingly tweaks one of my nipples, "very much so." He leans over me bracing his weight on one arm while roaming my body with the other.

I gasp and moan under his ministrations, "and the river really took place?"

"Oh yes," his lips brush my ear before he pulls the lobe into his mouth.

My chest raises and falls quicker as his hand slides down to my heat and he slips a finger into my dripping wetness , "Not a dream?" I breath out as my head thrashes from side to side with his fingers increasing pace.

He raises he head from his attention on one of my breasts with a smirk, "Not a dream."

The coil within me tightens and tightens and I struggle to form words to voice this new want that I feel overcoming me, "Zu-Zuko! I- I want-"

"What do you want?" his thumb swirls around my pearl, "tell me what you want."

My eyes lock onto his, "prove it."

He pauses in his ministrations and looks to me with question clear in his eyes, "tell me exactly what you want, Katara," his husky voice trembling slightly showing just how hot and bothered he really was at that moment.

"I need you to prove to me this is not a dream," I lift a leg and hook it around his waist, "I need you."

He freezes, searching my face. After a moment he asks, "you are sure? This is not just the moon talking?"

I lift my hips causing his hardness to slide between us, "I am sure. I've been sure." I move my hips against him and watch as his resolve comes crashing down.

"You've never…?" he groans out shakily.

"Never," I bring my lips to his ear, "take me, Zuko."

He reaches between us and grasps his hardened rod in his hand. He rubs the swollen head up and down my moist slit hitting my pearl at every pass. He kneel back on his heels and tilts my waist up with my legs wrapped around him. He places his gracious plenty at my entrance and stops, "Tara, look at me," my eyes lock with his as I whimper and wriggle my hips trying to get him where I want him most. He hold me firm, "I have to know for certain. There will be no going back," he looks at me nearly pleadingly, "tell me to stop and I will. Tell me before I cannot focus any longer."

"Please, Zuko," my head thrashes to the side in frustration.

"Tara," he orders, "tell me!"

"Ugnh! Zuko, take me. Take me. I'm yours," I plead I was more than able and willing. I was soaked with my need; it was dripping down my thighs.

He grasps my hips firmly, "I'm sorry," he whispers as he locks on to my eyes and thrusts fully into me.

Searing pain tears through me. I freeze with wide eyes as it feels as though I'm being ripped in two.

Zuko covers me with his body carefully, peppering my face with kisses, but remains otherwise completely still, "I'm sorry. So sorry, Tara, my Tara," he murmurs as he kisses the few tears from my faces. Softly, he kisses my lips and before I know it, I am moaning into his searing kisses; the pain long forgotten. As he sucks on my tongue, I jerk my hips causing a delicious feeling to shoot down to my finger tips and toes.

Zuko pulls away panting and rests his forehead against mine, "if I hurt you, tell me please. Don't want to hurt you again."

I nod as I squirm trying to get that amazing feeling back. I hear a loud keen as Zuko pulls out nearly all the way and the plunges back into me. And again, out- in – keen. As Zuko groans out my name and crashes his lips to mine, I realize that the keening was coming from me.

Zuko raises himself to his elbows and changes his thrusts. He thrusts in hard and then grinds his pelvic bone to mine, rubbing my pearl of nerves with each deep thrust.

"Tara," he moans, "My Tara."

I raise my hips now to meet his, moans and huskily spoken words spill from our lips. His pace quickens, "Nnnn, Zuko! Yes, yes!" I gasp.

He moves back to his heels tilting my waist and entering deeper, hitting a spot inside me that had me seeing fireworks behind my lids, "Yes, yes, Oh spirits! Zuko, faster, harder! Ungh!"

"Open your eyes, my Tara," I obey immediately and see him slipping a hand to where we are joined. His eyes bore into my in pools of molten gold, "I want to watch you as you come around my dick."

With that he flips my pearl and my back arches of the bedding, my head flies back and my vision whites out, "Zuko," I scream as my walls clamp around his manhood that is still pounding into me.

Just as I start to come back down, he shifts mid-thrust and moves to his knees, pulling my legs over his shoulders and effectively folding me in half, "Oh my… ZUKO," I scream again. Surely, I'd have no voice after this.

He pounded relentlessly into my core, rubbing the amazing spot inside and hitting a even deeper spot. It hurt slightly, but in an amazing way that made me beg him to go harder, harder and faster.

Our mouths battle for dominance: the battle of fire over ice, and ice over fire. His hand slips between us again and rubs and presses on my nub ferociously, "come with me, my Tara. Come now," he growls out and again, my body obeys. My walls slam around his shaft milking him for all that he is worth as his hot release pours into me.

"Tara! Ungh, Tara. Tara. Tara, my Tara," he chants as we ride out our orgasms. Finally he stills, resting his forehead to mine, "my Tara," he kisses me passionately rolling us to our sides while remaining inside me. He tucks my head under his chin, "I can never let you go now. I am yours completely," he kisses the top of my head.

I smile and kiss his chest, "I'll keep you as long as you want me."

He tightens his hold around me, "you should be prepared for a long time of dealing with me and my short temper."

I laugh, "then I should let you in on a little secret to make it easier for you."

He smiles down, "I have to hear this."

"When I am short with you and quick to anger over nothing," look up at him innocently, "it's only because I am frustrated that I can't rip your tunic from your body and ravish you completely."

If Zuko could get paler, he would have blanched. He swallows loudly, "you are going to be the death of me, my Tara." He kisses my nose and my lips, "rest, my sweet, as much as I wish to stay here and never leave, we have a world to save."

As I drifted off in my lover's arms, still joined and entangled with him, I swore I heard him whisper, "I plan to keep you always."

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><p><strong>Holy Space-Balls BATMAN!<strong>

That was fun to write! It's been a bit hasn't it? Yes well, C'est le vie. (This is the life.) I do what I can when I can. But wasn't this a lovely bone to throw you? I need a cold shower now. Adios!


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